A new report out from Boston Retail Partners suggests that while social media produces near unlimited opportunities to "create" a memorable and personalized customer shopping experience, most retailers simply are not executing. In fact, 81 percent of retailers surveyed in BRP's Enhancing Customer Engagement Through Social Media report indicated that their processes need some work.

Instead of looking exclusively at revenue and conversion related metrics, today's social media minded enterprises are looking at the channel as an opportunity to do more than just sell. 69 percent of retailers, for example, reported seeing opportunities to utilize social media to enhance the customer experience. The study also found that 75 percent support customer interaction via social media, 59 percent plan to utilize brand advocacy and social endorsement as a source of identifying valuable customers in the future, and 60 percent currently capture feedback and insights from social media and online comments.

“Social media provides retailers with unprecedented visibility into their customer base. It provides a venue where retailers can directly communicate with their customers and it can be an extremely powerful tool for collecting and using customer insights to improve planning decisions,” said Brian Brunk, principal at BRP. “Retailers can understand who the customer is, what she wants, when and where she wants it, and even why she wants it based on social media postings and feedback.”